1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector for connecting a flat cable with an electric or electronic circuit or device, such as a circuit board.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,527,595 discloses a connector for connecting wires of a flat cable to a circuit board. The connector has a wire-side connector and a board-side connector. Wire-side terminal fittings are disposed side-by-side in the wire-side connector for connection with the wires of the flat cable and board-side terminal fittings are disposed side-by-side in the board-side terminal for connection with the circuit board.
Long narrow contact pieces are formed at the leading ends of the wire-side terminal fittings and the board-side terminal fittings and project substantially parallel to a connecting direction of the connectors. The contact pieces are connected electrically with each other from above and below by connecting the wire-side terminal fittings and the board-side terminal fittings.
Consideration has been given to dividing the wire-side terminal fittings into upper and lower stages to achieve a narrower connector. However, the contact pieces at the upper stage are over the contact pieces at the lower stage, and as a result, the connector is taller. More particularly, the contact pieces at one side may be forked and those at the other side may be pressed into the forked contact pieces to ensure contact stability, as shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H03-266384. Thus, six contact pieces are located one over another in the two-stage connector, and the height of the connector is considerably larger.
The present invention was developed in view of the above problems and an object thereof is to maximally suppress the height of a connector that has wire-side terminal fittings at upper and lower stages.